ACADEMIC TEXTS REPOSITORY

Summary

This article examines the positive influence of bibliotherapeutic reading on the manifestations of alexithymia, which significantly complicates the identification of a person's own feelings and their verbalisation, hindering a fulfilling life. The inability to comprehend one's own emotions and those of others leads to social isolation and communication problems, which can result in a decline in the individual's broader cognitive functions. Our developed concept of bibliotherapeutic reading as a method of psychological self-help provides teachers with vital means to neutralise negative psychological factors. These are primarily caused by their demanding professional life, involving large expenditures of energy during work with students and communication with colleagues, management, and parents. Such interactions require the ability to adequately identify one's own emotions and assess the feelings of interlocutors. This is highly difficult for someone with alexithymic manifestations; accordingly, the teacher's performance of their professional duties becomes much more challenging. The ‘immersive basis’ of bibliotherapeutic reading involves deep emotional immersion of the reader into the literary world. This process provides not only the appropriation of emotional experiences from various life situations but also a more accurate identification of one’s own feelings, positively mitigating negative alexithymic manifestations. The systematic use of bibliotherapeutic reading by a teacher with such traits ensures more comfortable communication in professional and personal life. We firmly believe it leads to a precise identification of ‘one’s own and others’ emotional states’ and their proper verbalisation, ultimately increasing the teacher’s emotional stability.